Anyone know what this is?

[OldLeftieLawyer]

I'm reading "Roxanna Slade," by Reynolds Price, set in North Carolina backlands in the 1920s.

There is a funeral luncheon, and one of the dishes he mentions is "a fried platter of streak-of-fat, streak-of-lean."

I've looked all over, and I can't find anything about this dish. I'm poised to write to Mr. Price, if need be. I keep thinking it has to be something like bacon.

[Stinky The Clown]

1. Yup .... s'bacon

Not beggin' strips ....... bacon strips. :)

[DawgHouse]

2. yes, sounds like a big platter of bacon

It makes me think of Sizzlean from the 80's.

I did find some info on the web. Here's an excerpt from the web link:

Chef's Note: "Traditionally in the South, streak o' lean was the cooking fat of choice. It is the BMW of fatback because of its high proportion of lean meat. This is how you would prepare the cabbage using streak o' lean: Cut a 1/4-pound piece of lean salt pork into 1/4-inch slices. Place them in a cold 10-inch black cast iron skillet. Cook over very low heat for about 20 minutes to render the fat. Turn the heat up to medium and continue to cook until the meat is crisp. Remove the meat with a slotted spoon, drain it on a paper towel and reserve.

http://www.kingestate.com/Taste/Culinary/Recipes/PinotNoir/PorkPorterhouse.htm

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

5. But the description is describing

salt pork.Cut a 1/4-pound piece of lean salt pork into 1/4-inch slices.

Salt pork is different than bacon. It is the flavoring for chowders; potato, corn, crab, etc. I don't know that I would want to eat it by itself, but in certain parts of the country fatback was eaten w/chutney. Ugh!

best

[OldLeftieLawyer]

6. Makes great cracklings, too

You can't make a decent oyster stew without good fatback, but I really don't know about eating it as a meat.

Although, with chutney, it might be interesting.

I think my agent represents the author. I'm gonna ask her to ask him. This is just gonna nag at me.

[DawgHouse]

13. Oh yes,

and salt pork is excellent in a pot of beans. :)

[merci_me]

3. Hmmmm...............

I'm interested in the "fried platter". So I wonder how you fry a platter. Breaded? Deep fried or pan fried? Does it crack?

Couldn't resist. I always notice the misplaced adjectives, when it's written by a published author. Of course, the really funny ones are the ones in the classified "For Sale" section of the newspapers.

Mary

[OldLeftieLawyer]

4. That was my mistake - - -

I was just running from memory. So, I went back to the book, found a real error (ha!), and this is the funeral lunch:

"So, by the time the seven of us took our places, and Major had blessed it in his peculiar way (saying only "Lord, we accept these rations"), the table was burdened with smoked ham, chicken cooked every way known to humans, plus one baked guinea hen, a platter of fried streak-of-fat-streak-of-lean, eight or ten different strains of home-canned vegetables, the last of Palmer's summer tomatoes (he was the gardener and had a cellar still full of the green ones he'd pulled before the first cold spell).

"Even harder to believe there were ears of corn he'd somehow managed to keep till <sic> now. Also biscuits, hot rolls, cornbread fried in small thin pones with lacy edges and a dish of delicate spoonbread the size of a growing baby's tub. Pickles and relish of every description and eventually six kinds of cake and endless pies. Likewise ice tea, spring water, several wines made from the local fruit and the cut-glass tumbler of strong apple brandy that nobody touched or rank a drop from but Major Slade."

Sounds like bacon, but I'm still not sure it's bacon - maybe a really sexy kind of fatback, as noted above. But, this is something I've never heard of. I gotta find out.

(That was funny - your noting the "fried platter" - it reminded me of what a drag it gets to be, proofreading your book when it's going into production. I'm amazed more errors don't get through, because it is truly a mind-numbing process.)

[wiley]

7. It's bacon

Trust me on this. Fatback has no lean but sometimes skin for cracklins.

[ernstbass]

8. That's what my grandmother called salt pork

Never cooked green beans without it.

[anitar1]

9. I grew up on a small farm. My parents dressed out a hog

every fall. They hung the meat in our smokehouse. We always called what you are referring to, fatback. Delicious, and used in many dishes for seasoning. Especially green beans and blackeyed peas.Wish I had some of the sausages now!!

[OldLeftieLawyer]

10. This sounds right

So, if I might push this just a bit more, can you tell me how it was prepared - simply fried, like bacon? - and was it as fatty as the fatback I've seen, or did yours have lean, as was referred to in that quote from the Price novel? Honestly, I can't imagine eating it as a separate dish, by itself, but I'm not a farm person - by a long shot.

I do appreciate all of this from the folks who answered - very much.

[ernstbass]

18. We never prepared it seperately

Just put a peice in a pot of beans. It was primarily fat with some streaks of lean meat - my grandmother would just ask the butcher to cut her a piece (about 1 inch thick and 3 inches long) I con't imagine eating it by itself either but I'm sure they did in the Depression.

[Stinky The Clown]

11. I'm noticing all this debating about fat back ... Has anyone had English

Fried Bread? The way it is served at breakfast in the UK? I had this at a bed and breakfast in Coventry.

Bacon grease .... in a pan ... lots of it. Add some thick sliced white bread. Fry till the bread is brown. Eat.

The bread is quite literally dripping bacon grease.

Heart attack on a plate .... and the taste of grease overcame any hint of good bacon. It was overwhelmingly cloying. I loved bangers .... but fried bread was beyond me.



It may **look** like French .... er ..... Freedom Toast, but it ain't. It has but two ingredients ..... bread and bacon fat.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

12. That was our old camping breakfast

And my then-husband was a Brit.

Lots of bacon grease in a frying pan over the fire. Fry the bread, just as you said (How did you come to have a photo of that, by the way? I'm impressed.).

And then use a glass or a cup to cut out a circle in the middle - a very yummy breakfast appetizer - and drop an egg in there. Just let it cook until it's done to your liking. But you leave the drippings in the pan. Sounds like your experience in Covertry wasn't like that.

Heartstopping, yes, but, man, they were SO good.

Or maybe it's just fond memories of a grand time ...........

[Stinky The Clown]

14. The picture's from a fast Google/Images for either .......

'fried bread' or 'english fried bread'.

Yes, I'd heard they put the egg in the middle of the bread, but I never had it that way.

Fried bread struck me as 'cheap eats' kinda breakfast.

[SoCalDem]

15. We called them "Hobo eggs"

or "cyclops toast"

[grasswire]

16. oh! Toad in a hole!

That's what we call a dish like what you describe, but we use butter instead of grease. Tear out the center, drop in an egg. On the side, fry the center until toasty, too, and the pop it on the finished dish. The yolk should be soft. Delicious!

[supernova]

17. cooking oil for the day

When I was little, the mornings pan drippings, either from bacon or sausage were the day's cooking grease. You kept it in a little jar by the stove.